From the article: "Stay organized: Students enrolled in traditional courses usually have a consistent schedule to follow each week, with in-class instruction followed by out-of-class assignments. For online courses, students may have to find their own ways to stay on top of their work, notes Karen Stevens, chief undergraduate adviser of the University of Massachusetts—Amherst's University Without Walls program.

"'Students really, really need to be organized from the beginning to be successful in an online course,' Stevens wrote in an E-mail. 'All assignment due dates should be in their calendar, online or paper folders should be created for each week, [and] the work area should be not only quiet but clean—keeping all coursework materials together.'"